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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25701799">Andromeda.</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/alphe_ratz/pseuds/alphe_ratz'>alphe_ratz</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Newsies - All Media Types</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Found Family, Gen, also smalls is native american and it's important to me you know this, and aroace smalls, and trans boy spot &lt;3, bi davey nd kath, but like they also work as ocs so it kinda works as both a newsies and dd fic if you try hard enough, but you never know, danger days au!!, davey is demiboy, daveys kinda a badass thhough, everyone else is around 17 at the start of the fic and 20 at the end i think, feed them dog food and have them dye their hair and oppose the government, i love him so much, i think uhh ojibwe tribe i believe, if you're from the newsies fandom and don't know what danger days is, kath is demigirl, katherine centeric babeyy, like off screen deaths ig, might never finish this because i'm dumb as shitttt, nice gender nerd your mum pick it out for you?, pan romeo and spot, people do die but not on page, put them in the desert, romeo is haha cis dude, sexualities don't matter that much but, smalls is also like 10, smalls is non binary, there's fluff too hopefully, think rats who don't shower, uhh tw for shooting and like nearly dying via starvation and dehydration</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 08:34:07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>6,224</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25701799</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/alphe_ratz/pseuds/alphe_ratz</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The heat of the Zones was nothing like Katherine would have predicted.</p><p>It was a lot hotter and drier than she thought it would be.</p><p>She’d been out there for two weeks now and her skin had never looked so red, of course she’d gotten sunburn in the city before, but never this bad.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>David Jacobs &amp; Katherine Plumber Pulitzer, Sarah Jacobs &amp; Katherine Plumber Pulitzer, Spot Conlon &amp; Katherine Plumber Pulitzer, it's literally all platonic, katherine plumber pulitzer &amp; romeo (newsies), katherine plumber pulitzer &amp; smalls (newsies), lucille pulitzer (mentioned)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Andromeda.</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>sorry i can't write and sorry i wrote so much and ahh sorry there's a lot of dialogue </p><p>if you're from the newsies fandom and need a summary of danger days it's basically -<br/>there's BLI (better living industries) in the city (battery city) and the zones, which is basically desert waste land. BLI try to control the citizens of the city (with medication and fear) but some people rebel and fuck off to the zones to live a different life, they have a diet of dog food and sand, they all wear bright clothing which is probably why they keep getting killed by BLI</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>word count - 6089</p><p>also here's some slang terms - (taken from my friend's zone slang dictionary)</p>
<ul>
<li>
<strong>Undergrad</strong> (N): a new citizen of the zones, one who does not fully understand the mentalities of those living in them yet.</li>
<li>
<strong>Drac/Draculoid</strong> (N): vampire masked killjoy hunters employed by BLI; who the fuck knows</li>
<li>
<strong>Body Bag</strong> (N): BLI issue body bags are used to contain Killjoys and civilians of the Desert that are deemed inappropriate to join BLI by way of Draculoidization. <br/>
and i think any others are explained in the text</li>
</ul><hr/><p>
  <span>     The heat of the Zones was nothing like Katherine would have predicted. It was a lot hotter and drier than she thought it would be. She’d been out there for two weeks now and her skin had never looked so red, of course she’d gotten sunburn in the city before, but never this bad.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     For her first week, Katherine had travelled around with a killjoy gang called Dust Comets consisting of some people with very strange names, in her opinion, Lunar Eclipse, Ultra Violet, Moonshine Viper, Ultra Violet, Code Red, and Code Blue. They never explained their names, but she felt it rude to ask, Katherine assumed they were maybe born in the Zones and their parents had just given them weird names because they were high or drunk and it seemed funny at the time.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     The week ended when the group had been discovered by a draculoid squad. Lunar Eclipse had shoved her jacket and the token emergency satchel into Katherine’s hands and told her to keep running and not look back. So she did. Looking back, Lunar Eclipse must have known that they weren’t going to make it out alive.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     So with one week of experience, a gun she didn’t know how to shoot and a few bottles of water, Katherine kept walking. She had no perception of time, other than whether it was day or night, or distance, other than how much her legs were aching.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     Eventually Katherine found a market-looking area. It was full of people, all with obnoxiously bright hair and clothing. Perhaps this would be the game changer for her. So Katherine kept walking until she got to the very outskirts of it all, up on a small mound of rock and sand maybe twenty metres away. She couldn’t help but notice the terrible colour coordination of some of these people, one man, perhaps her age, had bright blue hair with a bright blue jacket and boots, paired with bright yellow trousers, none of which were clean and he looked like he’d never seen a shower in his life.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     In any normal situation, Katherine would blend in, but now she was afraid she’d stick out like a sore thumb, given she was wearing a white (though torn and sand covered) dress with a black and pale pink jacket far that too big for her, and a pair of quite dainty looking white trainers (again, battered and covered in dust and sand). Perhaps if her hair wasn’t dyed black to fit with the BLI standards that would help her, given as it was naturally ginger.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     Realising her thoughts had distracted her, Katherine picked herself up again and stumbled down the hill towards the masses. There were maybe a dozen stalls in a horseshoe with far too many people to count bustling around, there was a lot of yelling of curses and terms she’d never heard before, things like “Don’t write their name on the mailbox!” or “Get off the highway!” though the second one was spoken aggressively so she could only guess it meant something negative. Katherine had heard a few slang phrases from her time with the Dust Comets but she’d only really picked up on a few.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     She decided to approach two people, a man and a child so it seemed her safest bet, but first she waited until the right moment to approach them. The kid, with a large head of brown curls, being held up by one of the men, he had messy orange hair - obnoxiously bright, they were pointing towards the same man she had seen earlier. “If you dye your hair why would you go with blue of all the colours? That’s, like, the most depressing colour.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     The other replied, laughing, “I dunno, it does look pretty lame, though. You're not gonna be able to blend into the desert,”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     The kid made a face, “It’s not even a cool colour.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     Another man came over, he had pink hair and was maybe one inch shorter than the other man, “Technically,” He said, “It is a cool colour,”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “It’s absolutely utterly lame…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “So tell him that,”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     The kid nodded and struggled out of the orange man’s arms, they walked over and pushed their way through to tug on the sleeve of the man with blue hair while the other two just watched, “Hey Ace? Five carbons the kid gets shot at?” The man with orange hair said to Ace, the one with pink hair.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     Ace snorted in reply, “No ‘joys stupid enough to shoot a kid in a crowded place like this,”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “But most ‘joys get pissy if you make fun of them.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     Ace shrugged, “They’ll be fine.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     The kid tugged on his sleeve again, “Why do you have blue hair?” Surprisingly, they seemed fairly polite about it - no rude or snarky tone.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     He turned around, he didn’t look very impressed, “Because I like the colour?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “It’s a stupid colour.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “Well I like it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “If you dyed it yellow then it would match your pants.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     He sighed, “Well last I checked, blue was my colour, so that doesn’t really matter?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “Do you own the colour?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “No, but it’s like my thing or whatever…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “Well it’s a stupid thing…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     He sighed again, rolling his eyes in annoyance, “Where the fuck is your crew?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “Wouldn’t you like to know, ocean boy.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     Ace ran over and picked up the kid, “Okay, Burn Up…” He looked to the man with blue hair and laughed, “Sorry about that, you know how kids are…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “Yeah, sure.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     Ace bounced the kid, apparently known as Burn Up - jeez, did anyone have a normal name around here? “Are you mad?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “Nope.” He smiled, though it was obvious that it was forced.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “Anyway… we gotta go now, c’mon, kid,”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “We haven’t finished looking around yet-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     Ace started to walk away, “We’re going to keep on looking around, </span>
  <em>
    <span>just not over here</span>
  </em>
  <span>.” he got back to the other man, who was laughing to himself at the scene before him, “Have you seen anyone selling food, Roy?” Roy seemed like a perfectly normal name.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     Roy nodded and gestured his head towards a large stall swarming with people, “Yeah, jus’ over there.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “Can we not get Powerpup this time?” Burn Up asked,</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     Ace opened his mouth to say something then closed it again before saying something that was probably different. “I don’t know, we might be able to swing that.” The kid started to struggle in his arms, as if they wanted to be put down, “If you promise not to insult anyone, I’ll let you go,”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “It’s not my fault his hair is the biggest body of water in the Zones!” They continued, despite the fact that he was still four, maybe five feet away.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “Still, you can’t do that. A lot of these people are armed,”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “Armed with bad hair decisions?!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “Burn Up-!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     They stuck their tongue out at him, which made Katherine laugh, which also reminded her that she actually needed to talk to them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “Can you guys help me please?” She asked, mostly to Ace, seen as he seemed like the responsible one out of the group.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     The kid was quick to reply, “With what?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     Katherine shoved her hand a small pocket in her dress (which was, truth be told, a rip in the material) and took out a photo of a girl, maybe nineteen when it was taken, who was almost a spitting image of Katherine herself, other than the slight difference in features, “I’m looking for my sister, her name’s Lucille.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     Burn Up looked at the photo intensely for a moment, suddenly seeming a bit uncomfortable as they got a better look at Katherine, “I don’t know anyone out here… sorry…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     Ace interrupted, shoving them behind him and Roy was quick to pick them up, “We’re not fucking sell outs, try your shit on someone else,” he spat.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     To Katherine it seemed like her best bet was to be polite, she couldn’t tell how this would end, “Sorry, sir, it’s not a con or anything, though, I really am looking for her,”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “You really expect me to think you’re not smiley?” Ace squinted,</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “Smiley?” That was a word she hadn’t heard before, and she could only guess it wasn’t the same as a grin.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     Burn Up spoke up again, “Are you just out of the city?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “Uh…” Katherine knew she shouldn’t lie, so she didn’t, “yeah, why,”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     They looked to Ace then back to Katherine, “Then you’re smiley,”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “Oh…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “How long have you been out here?” Ace asked,</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “Two weeks,”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “Oh Destroya…” He muttered, “How did you get this far out?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “I travelled with a group for a bit but then these vampire things, uh… dracs? Got them,” She explained, though out of her eye, she could see the man with blue hair watching them, a blue and white gun in hand and looking incredibly suspicious of her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     Burn Up struggled out of Roy’s arms and wandered up to her, “Which section are you from?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “Section A, why?” She smiled.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     The kid made a face in reply and returned to Roy, behind Ace,</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “We’ve… gotta go, but it was nice meeting you…” Ace waved her off, voice sarcastic - not that Katherine picked up on that.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “Oh… it was nice to meet you too!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     Just before they got out of earshot, she heard the kid say “I’d rather be talking to the ocean looking boy-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     Katherine sighed and decided that maybe she could make amends with the blue haired man, so she walked up to him with her photo in hand, she held it up to him, “Have you seen this girl? I’m looking for her,”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     He didn’t make any move to dismiss her, which surprised her, though it did look like he was trying not to frown, but something seemed off to Katherine, “No… sorry,” he took a while to reply, he must have either been trying to think of a response or processing what was just said, which would make sense because his accent was incredibly difficult for Katherine to understand, though she’d just about manage.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “Are you sure?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “Yeah, for sure…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     She stuffed the photo back in her pocket and rolled on her heels and the balls of her feet, “Hmm… because she's been out here for a few years now and someone must have seen her at least once…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “It’s possible she could just be in one of the outer zones, sometimes people out there aren’t heard from for years.” He shrugged.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “Really?” Her eyes lit up a little, it was a small glimmer of hope, “How do I get there?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “Lots of ways, much easier if you can hitch a ride with someone, though, you never know how long it’ll take to get somewhere out here,”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     "Where can I hitch a ride?” She asked, “Is there a taxi service or something?" She may have been with the Dust Comets for a week, but in all honesty she didn’t learn much, other than the odd slang term and to just keep running.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “Are you a batt rat or something?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “A what?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     He rolled his eyes and laughed, “You from the city?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “What’s it to you?” Katherine tried to big herself up, physically, though she was 5ft3 and he must have been close to 6ft so that proved difficult.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “Well, you’re kinda obvious about it, considerin’ you just asked if there’s a taxi service out here,”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     She blinked, “Well, it was a valid question!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “Not out here it ain’t, d’you think cars just come around everyday?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “I wouldn’t know,” She muttered, going back to fiddling with the end of her sleeve subconsciously.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “It’s a desert wasteland, do that math.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     Katherine sighed, “Could </span>
  <em>
    <span>you </span>
  </em>
  <span>give me a ride then?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     He didn’t seem particularly thrilled about that, “I don’t have a car, not sure if my bike’s even big enough for two people.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “Can I borrow your bike then?” She could have guessed the answer, but it was worth a try.     </span>
</p><p>
  <span>     He snorted, “First off, no way am I letting anyone near that without me, second off, you even know how to drive a bike?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     She straightened her back, yet again trying to big herself up, “Maybe I do.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “... and how long have you been out of the city?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “What’s it to you?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “Well if you haven’t been out here that long then I doubt you know how to drive a bike,”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     Katherine crossed her arms and Huffed, "you don't know anything about me."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “Well I know you’re a batt rat, pretty new out of the city too, most people out here can spot symptoms of withdrawal A mile away, and if you aren’t new, then they musta had you on some seriously fucked up meds,” It was true, she could feel herself shaking, twitching every so often, it must have been painfully obvious to everyone that she had just come of BLI meds.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     She stayed quiet for a moment then spoke up again, maybe it would have been better to agree, apologise, and walk away, but she wasn’t going to let herself lose an argument. “I’m not a batt rat or whatever you call it…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     He sighed and started walking away, calling out as he went, “Hope you find your cousin, or whoever it was you were looking for,”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     Katherine was left looking incredibly lost, she looked around and saw the same three from before, Ace, Roy, and Burn up if she remembered correctly. Roy had a large pack of tins in his arms and was just walking back towards the other two when he decided to stop off at the man with blue hair, they had a conversation but Katherine only picked up on the odd word like “Aged Sadness” or “Retro Depression” and something along the lines of “Ancient Suffering” before Ace pulled Roy away towards the stall selling a lot of white tins, she wondered what was so exciting inside them that people fought to get to the front of the line for.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     This all seemed like a lost cause to Katherine, she clearly wasn’t going to get any help from anyone so perhaps she would have to get buy on her own, if that was even possible. She decided to look at the stalls, even if she couldn’t buy anything perhaps she could get a job, if not then it was a time filler. Her first instinct was food, it might have been a death wish but she approached the three again.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “If you aren’t going to do anything else?” She said, “At least tell me where I can buy food.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     Thankfully, they heard her, otherwise it would be pretty awkward. Ace turned around, a look of annoyance on his face, but it quickly changed to pity. He walked a few steps over, away from the crowds. “Yeah… okay, uh, what’s your name?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “Katherine Pulitzer.” She hoped they wouldn’t judge too harshly on her normal name.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     He scoffed, “You can’t go around with a name like that, I thought even batt rats knew that. You been out here a day?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “Two weeks she corrected, fiddling with the sleeves of her jacket,</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “You might want to think about picking out a different name, I’ll just call you uh…” Ace looked around and noticed a star on the side of her jacket, “Star, does that work?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “Sure…? What’s wrong with my current name?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “No one uses real names in the Zones,” Roy piped in, “It’s a little smiley, you know, like BLI,”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “I’m not from BLI though,” She added quickly, “Just from the city.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     Ace thought for a moment, “Regardless, you’re lucky you found a market, you can get basically anything you need here, you said you needed food, yeah?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     Katherine nodded, “Yeah, but all I can find is dog food,” to which Burn Up laughed,</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     He almost felt a little bad, "Yeah, you're gonna have to get used to that.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “Why? I mean, I've seen a lot of dog food but no dogs, what's that about?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “That's all the food we have,” Burn Up explained,</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     Ace nodded, "That's all we have to eat out here.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     Katherine at first thought it was a joke, she cocked an eyebrow, “Really?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “It’s not that bad,” Roy reassured, “Once you get over the texture anyway,”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “Have you got a gun?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     She nodded and pulled one out of her satchel, it looked pretty battered and the pink and purple paint was pretty chipped and faded, “I do, but I don’t know how to use it,”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     Ace sighed and reached his hand into his pocket, he pulled out maybe two dozen dirty gold-looking coins and counted them, “D’you need a hand getting started? Figuring things out?” He offered.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     Katherine was never really one to take help from anyone and right now was no different, “No thanks, I’m okay,”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     Roy raised his eyebrows, “You sure? Because I heard you talking to Ancient Suffering over there about a taxi service in the Zones.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     She felt her cheeks heat up in embarrassment, “The guy with the blue hair?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     Roy nodded, “Uh-huh,”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “It was a valid question!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “Right… do you have a mask?” Ace interrupted again,</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     The kid tugged on her sleeve again, they had a good heart from what Katherine could tell. “If you don’t have one then you can make one!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “Yeah um… I don’t think i have the artistic talent for that,”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     Ace nodded and lifted Burn up onto his shoulders, he also made a point to pull his goggles around his neck so they could braid his hair more easily. “So you have a gun? And nothing else?” </span>
  <span>Katherine nodded. </span>
  <span>He gestured his head for her to follow, he led the group over to a stall, it was probably the most sturdy out of all of them and across the table it had an assortment of white guns, jackets, and a few pairs of black boots, “Okay, so you’ll need a mask, and probably clothes that aren’t… that? You could probably get a shirt out o’ that dress but not much else, you’ll probably want a different pair of shoes too. These are all second hand Scarecrow things, hopefully they won’t be too expensive.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “What size shoes do you need?” Roy asked, already looking through the pairs on the table,</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “Uh… five?” She responded,</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     Roy nodded and eventually pulled a pair out and handed them to her, “They’re a little battered but they’ll do,” He handed a fistful of coins to the woman manning the stall, saying a thanks to her as she did so,</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “You need a mask too?” Ace moved over to the neighbouring stall, the other followed. The whole thing had eye masks covering the table and poles of the booth, some of them looked newer and were off a whitish colour, others were of a myriad of designs with colours that hurt to look at, those ones also looked a lot older and in worse condition.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     Katherine nodded and straightened her back, “I do, but I’m not a charity case.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     Roy gave a crooked smile, “You might as well be,”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “And what’s that supposed to mean?” She made a face, though she didn’t want to get on the bad side of them just yet.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “You don’t know what you’re doing… better to take help then get tucked in,” The kid answered, still playing with Ace’s hair, there must have been at least seven braids in there by now.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “Tucked in?” The term rang a bell, but Katherine wasn’t sure what it meant.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     Ace huffed, “In a body bag… if you don’t want our help then we could just leave you alone.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     Katherine would never admit the fact that she was desperate for help, so she just shrugged, hoping they might stick around at least a little bit longer. Ace took the group to another booth, Katherine followed behind while Roy and Burn Up seemed to be having a conversation about something, she could guess it was her considering the kid kept glancing back to look at her before Roy tugged them forwards again. She decided to speed up her pace and walk beside them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “Why do so many people dye their hair anyway? Like bright, obnoxious colours?” She asked,</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “For fun, that and you aren’t allowed to in the city,” Roy explained, smiling to himself a little, “It’s… freedom,”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “</span>
  <em>
    <span>But</span>
  </em>
  <span>-” Burn Up paused to tie off a braid, “-blue is a stupid colour to dye your hair. So don’t do that,”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     Katherine snorted but asked “Why?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “Lame as shit,” They giggled, apparently not aware the same blue haired man from before was at the booth next to them, he huffed and clenched his jaw. It shocked Katherine a little bit to hear swears and curses coming from Burn Up, they must have been only ten, twelve at the most.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “Being a kid is lame as shit… and it’s a fine fuckin’ colour.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “Okay neutral.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     Katherine furrowed her eyebrows, a little confused and a little annoyed, “Hey! Don’t be so rude!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     Ace intervened, handing Burn Up to Roy, “Yeah, uh, you can’t talk to them like that, pally.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “They insulted me first!” He half yelled, whether it was out of anger or because of the crowd, Katherine couldn’t tell.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “They’re a kid…” She said, “And you’re an adult, you should know better.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     He rolled his eyes and left again as Burn Up stuck their tongue out to his back.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     Ace turned back to the stool and picked up a plain white mask, “How much do you want to-” a few gunshots from the otherside of the market cut him off.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     The crowd dispersed and then Katherine could just about see around twenty dracs, wearing all white and a vampire mask that looked like it was bought in a dollar store, she couldn’t tell if they were the same ones as before, each one looked identical. Some of the people let out some screams where they’d been shot and others were yelling at everyone else to get out, Katherine felt her heart beat quicken as she looked around for Ace, Burn Up, and Roy. Luckily, they hadn’t gone far, in fact they’d barely moved by the looks of it. “What should we do?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     Roy grabbed her sleeve and dragged her away, following the other two, “Get out, obviously.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “What about fighting back?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “Stay if you want, but I think blue boy over there has it under control,” He nodded his head to the man with the blue hair, who had his gun out and was shooting in the vague direction of a drac, along with a dozen other people,</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “But he’ll get himself killed!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “Shame. Now hurry up or I’ll leave you here and I know you won’t last a second on your own,” Katherine frowned at that but quickened her pace into a run, unbeknownst to her that a gaping hole in the bottom of her satchel was dropping her belongings onto the floor.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     Eventually, Katherine was led to a jeep, it was green but the paint chipped away so you could see the original colour underneath, which was a bright red. A few of the windows were cracked and the sides were decorated with a myriad of scrapes and dents. Roy ran around to the driver's seat and revved the engine, telling her to get in with the others. So she did, she clicked her seatbelt before realising she was the only one who actually did so.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     "You know, guys, I think that if you didn't wear such bright clothing then maybe the dracs wouldn't keep finding you all-"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     Just as the car began to pick up speed a large </span>
  <em>
    <span>thud</span>
  </em>
  <span> sound came from the back of the car and it was followed by a loud “FUCK!” They probably wouldn’t have stopped if whatever it was didn’t speak, dracs didn’t speak so it had to be a killjoy. Katherine wished they had just kept driving, her hands were shaking and her palms were sweating, this was probably the second most terrified she had been in her life, the first being when she had to make a runner from her previous crew being murdered.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     Roy did keep driving slowly though, while Ace stuck his head out of the passenger’s side window, “It’s Vintage!” He called out and turned to Roy, quietening his voice “We should probably stop,” and they did, the person, apparently called Vintage walked over to the rolled down passenger side, Katherine couldn’t quite see his face but she recognised his voice when he spoke.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “You still got that undergrad with you?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “No, we chucked her out,” Ace replied, voice dripping with sarcasm,</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “Really?” He panted, raising his eyebrows, clearly not picking up on the sarcasm.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     Roy interrupted, “No, she’s in the back, what do you want?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “She dropped her shit and I need to talk to her about something.” At that Katherine unclicked her seatbelt and leaned forwards between the two front seats, it was the same man as before, the one with blue hair. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “What about?” She asked, he leaned down and rested in the window frame, holding up her gun, “Oh! Can I have that back?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “Not until you tell me where you got it from,” He said,</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     Ace cleared his throat, “Can we do this another time when there aren’t dracs right around the corner?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “Right, I’ll grab my bike and we’ll meet somewhere? Does the motel off Zone Two work?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “The blue one or the green-ish yellow one?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     Vintage thought for a second, “Blue, with the weird looking brick pattern out front,”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “Gotcha, we’ll see you there then,” Ace nodded, before rolling up the window again and Roy started driving again quickly, throwing Katherine back into her seat,</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “What about my gun?!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “Relax, princess, Vince is mostly a man of his word, even if he is an ass.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     Her face soured a little at the word ‘princess’ but she didn’t dare argue now that they had helped her and stopped her from being shot and killed, “If you say so…”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>     It must have been about twenty minutes before they pulled up outside an old motel. The blue paint was faded and on the roof was a sign but most of the bulbs had been cracked or broken and a few of the letters had fallen off, so instead of ‘motel’ it said ‘ ot l‘ with the marks of the missing letters imprinted on the surface. “Is this it?” Katherine asked, Burn Up already crawling out of the car and heading towards the dried out fountain in the middle of the car park. The drive was mostly silent, other than Ace checking up on the kid after the incident at the market, and the kid pointing out random things along the road like cacti or rocks that looked like animals or something along the lines of.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     Ace nodded, “Yeah, Vince will probably be along in about ten minutes. You could uh… change into those boots now if you want.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     Katherine hummed in reply and opened the car door, she swung her legs around and kicked off her trainers. There was a faint dust stain on the skirt of her dress from where the shoes had sat on her lap for the journey, she grumbled, not that it would matter seen as she figured that hopefully soon she’d have new clothes to wear. She kicked off her trainers and began to put the combat boots on, “You never told me your names, by the way,”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     The two had followed Burn Up over to the fountain, a few yards away, “I’m Ace of Spades, or Ace,” He told her, “The one with orange hair is Royal Sunrise or Roy and the kid is Burn Up and we don’t bother shortening that.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “What about your real names?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     Roy scoffed, “You don’t just go around telling people your real name.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “How come?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “Security, and it’s a trust thing. Say, if you ever get yourself a partner then they might tell you their real name, birth name is a better name for it though, your ‘joy name is a part of your identity, not really a fake or pretend name.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “That makes sense, what would mine be?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “That's up to you, again it’s </span>
  <em>
    <span>your </span>
  </em>
  <span>identity,”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     Katherine finished lacing up her second boot, “I’ll sleep on it, I think,” She stood up, feeling a little taller thanks to the thick sole, surprisingly they were pretty comfortable and they felt pretty worn in, probably thanks to the previous owner.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “Where’d you get the jacket from anyway?” Ace asked,</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “My old group,” She didn’t say anything else, so he figured that it was maybe a touchy subject or something that was best not spoken about. Katherine walked over to the dry fountain and sat on the edge, her legs hanging into the pit.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     About ten minutes later Vintage arrived on his bike, he parked it and pulled off his helmet, leaving it on the bike, his hair stuck up a little but he tried to flatten it again. He walked over to Katherine and held the gun in front of her, a little bit violently - not that she’d say anything about it, “Where’d you get this from?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “Some girl called Lunar Eclipse, our gang… got attacked by dracs so she gave it to me and told me to run,”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     He stuttered a bit, face fallen, “She have purple hair? Eyebrow piercing? A uh… white bandanna around her neck?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     She nodded slowly, eyebrows furrowed in confusion, “Yeah?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     Vintage walked away a bit, stumbling, he left the gun on the roof of the car, he went over to a bag hanging off his bike and rummaged around, after a minute he pulled out an old photograph, it wasn’t black in white but the colours were all quite faded. He walked back over to the crew, who were exchanging confused yet concerned looks, and kneeled next to Katherine, “Is this her?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “Yeah… I thought we clarified that they’re the same person. Are you alright?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     He shook his head and put the photo into a pocket in his sleeve, he bunched up some of the fabric from his shirt and dabbed it on his eyes, “She was my sister, is all, she was also supposed to be looking after our younger brother… there wasn’t a teenage boy with them, was there? Say thirteen or fourteen?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “Uh, no, sorry,”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “Great,” He took a breath, blinked back a few tears, and held out her hand for her to shake, “I’m Vintage Misery, by the way,”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     She took it and shook it, “I don’t have a uh… other name yet, sorry,”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     Vintage shook it off and stood up, “I’m going for a ride, but I’ll see you all around.” He looked to the rest of the group and returned to his bike. He seemed distracted when he went to put on his helmet and revved the engine of his bike, but after receiving news that both your sister and brother are dead (or missing) with no other family left, you probably would be a bit distracted too.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     He drove off, leaving the air with an awkward aura about it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “Well,” Ace sighed, frowning, “Never thought I’d see him cry,”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “All his family are dead now, give him a break,” Roy chucked a pebble at the other,</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “It’s the Zones, I don’t really know what you expected,”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>---</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>     The evening went quickly, much to Katherine’s surprise. As the darkness flooded over the desert, they started a fire, which didn’t go too well at first as there apparently wasn’t too much wood or kindling around the area. But eventually they managed to light a small fire, which eventually turned into a small bonfire, lighting up the whole car park. There was the odd small-talk between them, though Katherine mostly stayed quiet throughout the night and when the time came for everyone to sleep, Roy took watch while Ace and Burn Up slept together one side of the fire while Katherine slept alone with nothing but a jacket to keep herself warm.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     It took awhile for her to get to sleep, she was mostly contemplating whether leaving the city was a good idea - knowing her luck, the search for her sister would probably be a lost cause. Plus, she was attempting to come up with a name for herself, it was difficult at first but she got the impression you just chose a cool sounding first name and added a related word as the second name.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     Then the morning came, much too quickly. The sun was quite bright, almost blinding, when Katherine first woke up, the other three were already awake and talking, Roy was working on opening four white tins that had a label reading ‘Powerpup’. Once he noticed she was awake, he leaned across and put an open tin with a fork next to her, “You’ll need to eat,” Roy told her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “Is this…?” She trailed off, assuming they understood what she meant,</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     Burn Up nodded in reply, “Yep!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     Katherine grimaced, sitting up and taking the tin. She poked her fork in and got barely a mouthful on it, the smell was utterly foul and it almost made her feel sick. She took a breath and opened her mouth, not bothering to chew at all in hope to avoid the taste all together, she swallowed and coughed,</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “It’s disgusting, I know, I told Ace to put sand in it but he thinks that’s a terrible idea.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “Yeah uh… I don’t think sand would improve the nutritional quality or taste all that much,”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “The what now?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “Nutritional quality…?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “Sounds made up,” Roy interjected, “You shouldn’t make up words like that,”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     Ace cleared his throat, “Anyways! We were talking-” He looked to the two others, “-And thought it might be in your best interest to join a gang?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     Katherine nodded along, “Yeah, but I know that already,”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “Would you be interested in joining our gang? It’s not really a gang right now, just three dudes in the Zones, but we could make it a gang and do things like… arson?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     It took Katherine a moment to process, it seemed very quick. They accused her of being a BLI employee yesterday and now they were inviting her to hang around with them twenty-four/seven and share their resources with her. It didn’t add up to her at all, she narrowed her eyes, “What’s the catch?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     Ace threw his hands up in defense, “There’s no catch! What makes you say that?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “Well, yesterday you were accusing me of being a BLI person-thing and now you’re inviting me to your group?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “We figured you would have shot us in our sleep if you were going to, that’s usually how these things work,” He explained, “D’you want to join us or not?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     She thought for a moment and then nodded, “I thought of a name too, by the way,”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “Oh yeah?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “Andromeda Flash,”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     Burn Up’s head whipped up from their tin of Powerpup, “Like the star-picture?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     She chuckled then nodded her head, “Yeah, like the stars,”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “That’s cool! Which one is it?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “The uh… chained princess, there’s a myth behind it too-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     The sound of a vehicle driving along the road, the sound growing louder as it got closer, Roy stood up to get a better look, “I think it’s Vince, do we know anyone else with a bike so blue it hurts to look at?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     Ace shook their head, “Don’t think so, why’s he back?” Vintage eventually came to a halt once he reached a few metres into the car park of the motel, “What do you want?” Ace asked,</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “I was going to come back last night but I figured that you wouldn’t appreciate me coming back in the middle of the night, thought you might shoot me,” He explained, pulling off his helmet, “Anyways, I found a diner in Zone Four, I figured you want a place to stay now you have her-” Katherine opened her mouth to protest, earning a glare from Roy, “-and also the kid, might be easier and more comfortable for you all.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     Ace squinted, “Why are you telling us?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “Because I’m tired of travelling on my own and need a gang, plus I think I would be a good asset to your team,”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “Oh?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     His stomach rumbled so Vintage leaned over, grabbed the tin and fork then started eating Katherine’s Powerpup, she would have protested but it was disgusting so she didn’t mind too much, “Mhm, I’ve survived seven years on my own, mostly, I’m pretty sure I know what I’m doing,”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     Katherine scoffed, “Aren’t you modest,”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     “Just being honest,” He corrected, “Kick me out in a month if you want but it would be your loss,”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>     Ace looked to Roy who shrugged then nodded, “Yeah okay, but you need to get some manners if you’re going to stay with us,”</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>thanks for readinggggg!!</p><p>in future chapters i'll refer to characters as their newsies names (unless it's dialogue) i just didn't here because it didn't flow right lol<br/>(these all belong to my friends lol)<br/>andromeda flash/andy - kath<br/>ace of spades/ace - spot<br/>royal sunrise/roy - romeo<br/>burn up - smalls<br/>vintage misery/vee - davey<br/>lunar eclipse/lunar - sarah<br/>moonshine viper - blink<br/>ultra violet - race<br/>code red - mike<br/>code blue - ike</p></blockquote></div></div>
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